


steel, light, and timelines

by vitaminhershey



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-04 22:43:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12781197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vitaminhershey/pseuds/vitaminhershey
Summary: Seulgi's great at fighting, but she's not quite sure about everything else.





	steel, light, and timelines

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: ok!! hi it’s me back with another seuldy fic!! i was watching spiderman homecoming and i wanted to put seulgi into a setting where she’s kind of in this weird limbo? she has powers... but she doesn’t know how to create a name for herself. struggles that seem to be characteristic to superheroes, but really, everyday ones. thank you for reading ❤

  
  


       There are many reasons as to why someone might want to become a superhero. They might’ve been thrust into this hectic life, tossed in like a rag doll and forced to survive. Or they might thirst for the adrenaline, the feeling of their hearts pounding as they sprint after the latest super criminal. 

      Seulgi’s not really sure which one she is. As she seats herself precariously on the rooftop edge of one of the old downtown apartments, she kicks her legs off the end and tries to reflect on her purpose, like her homeroom teacher had suggested she do; “Ms.Kang, it’d be best if you found a purpose. You can’t just wander through life with no purpose--you’re too talented for that!!! Imagine the lost internships, the lost opportunities!! You could change the world, be part of the revolution that’ll make up for the mistakes of past generations.” 

Ms.Kim is big on changing the world, being the tiny spark that set off a fire, but Seulgi has bigger problems to deal with. Her first problem was deciding on a hero name. Irene had suggested some pretty nice names, but Joy had run into the room, screaming that Seulgi should name herself the Rock, completely ignoring all mentions of copyright issues. There was also the pressing issue of her powers, and how to control them. Creating a crater every time she jumped down from a building definitely didn’t do much service to her reputation, and it definitely wasn’t fun when her powers locked down on her and she couldn't get out from her stone armor, stumbling around, unable to move without knocking something in the apartment over.

As she dangles her feet over the edge, she wonders why she became a hero. Was it preferable to keeping her powers hidden? Or perhaps, did she just enjoy fighting? She definitely doesn’t enjoy the parts where she had to empathize with victims. She definitely feels sorry of them, but somehow, saying “I’m sorry for your loss” just seemed to belittle the victims, reducing their problems to insignificant-- 

_ BANG _ . 

Seulgi whirls her head, trying to find the source of the loud noise. Her fingers tense, and she gets ready to leap down from her little thinking place. There are shouts coming from somewhere below, and she leaps down, trying to land as softly as possible--the city council had yelled at her for five hours the last time she’d created a crater. She only partially succeeds, leaving a few cracks in the road, but they blend in with the wear and tear of forty years. Shrugging, she makes her way towards the commotion. What’s a few cracks next to a spiderweb of them? 

As she approaches the crime scene, she sees two men arguing. 

‘Hyun Suk, this was supposed to be a scout mission!! Go in, take a few photos, locate weak points, and access security codes! You weren’t supposed to blow it up!! What do we steal now??” the younger of the two asks, running a hand through his tousled hair. 

The other man, presumably Hyun Suk (the name sounds familiar?), twirls his blaster around his middle finger, his frog-like features scrunching up. It’s unpleasant to watch, but she lets him continue so she can eavesdrop on as much as she can; information is usually amazing, consisting of secret hideouts, passcodes, and the latest in villain fashion. 

“We’re super villains! We’re supposed to go around, parading our strength and glory to the whole city! So, tell me, Mister,”--he adopts a sour, mocking face--“why should I quiet myself? I should be able to walk into that bank and demand money!” 

Seulgi decides it’s probably time to intervene. She taps the pressure point on her wrist, and her body morphs, turning into the hardest steel, and her eyes harden, glazing over with the transparent metal that Joy had designed for her. She clenches and releases her fists, reducing the tension in her shoulders, before jumping onto the nearest lamppost. 

“You know, this may be a bit too much of me to say, but I’ve found that the best things come with patience and hard work, Mr.Yang.” Seulgi supplies this line, but it’s a pitiful attempt at being witty.definitely not her best skill set, it’s best she leaves the one-liners to Yerim. 

“Exactly!” the younger one shouts. “Did you hear her? Now that’s someone--” his hand drops down, and his face tilts towards her in confusion. “Wait, who are you?” 

Seulgi doesn’t exactly have a hero name, so she settles for introducing herself in the best way she knows--attacking. She leaps down, jutting her foot out, kicking Yang straight in the neck. He chokes and fumbles for his blaster, but she knees him in the stomach and prys it out of his hand, denting the blaster as she snatches it with a bit more force than she intended. Damn it. The heroics department in the city would’ve wanted to investigate it.

The younger one pulls out his own firearm, but it’s a model the cops carry: strapped to their waists, possessed more out of cowardice than a willingness to protect the people. He fires twice, but Seulgi’s body simply absorbs the shots. She smirks--that means new moves.  As she flexes her shoulders, the man drops the gun and tries to scurry away from her. Seulgi runs towards him, lunging and jumping straight up before landing right in front of the man. She smiles brightly at him, adrenaline boosting her mood. 

“I’m sorry sir, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the cops to get here!” Seulgi works quickly, the metal on her fingers whirling around his hands and tightening. She places one of the city issued trackers onto his cheek, watching as it grafts onto his skin. 

He sputters, but doesn’t try to escape.

Seulgi would stay for longer, but her shift is over. I.M is supposed to take over the streets now, so she’ll leave the technical stuff for him. Besides, it’s a school night and she still hasn’t done the reading for her biology class tomorrow morning.  

        *** 

“Ms.Kang,” Professor Kwon’s voice echoes, “am I interrupting your morning nap?”

Seulgi wakes up with a startle, her ponytail all scrunched up as she reaches up to adjust the kinks in her hair. Professor Kwon is staring down at her, obviously unimpressed. 

“Ms. Kang, please answer my question.” Professor Kwon is tapping a piece of chalk irritably, and her eyebrows are raised, so Seulgi quickly replies. 

‘No, ma’am, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Seulgi means it. Biology is one of her favorite classes, and her afternoon nap is the result of muscle exhaustion. 

Professor Kwon seems to accept this answer, as her facial features relax and she walks up to the whiteboard to continue her lecture on speciation. Seulgi grips her favorite black pen and resumes jotting down notes. She’s never trusting Taeil with waking-up-duty again. She turns to him, glaring holes into the side of his face. He shrugs, giving her one of his little “this is why you shouldn’t sleep” grins, and motions to the front of the classroom where the professor has written out the four principles of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. 

Her next class is chemistry, and she has to try a little harder to stay awake in that class, especially since a lot of the chemicals there are extremely harmful to her skin. Thankfully, Joshua is a lot more alert to situations like this, and proceeds to be as annoying as he possibly can. She doesn’t mind though, as he does stop her from accidentally putting her elbow in 12 Molar hydrochloric acid. 

During lunch, as Seulgi approaches their lunch table, Irene takes one glance at her and frowns in sympathy, handing her her fruit smoothie without asking questions. Seulgi practically inhales it, and plops down onto the cold metal benches in front of her. Irene has taken to bringing a mini-pillow for Seulgi’s tired days, so she lifts it and places it under her head. Seulgi reminds herself to thank both Irene for taking care of her, and her own past self for being smart enough to tell someone at school about her little night job. Job isn’t the right word, though, since she doesn’t exactly get paid for her efforts, but it’s much better than saying ‘night volunteering.’” 

Once the bell rings, Irene wakes her up, smooths down her hair, and gently reminds her that she has a study date with Wendy after her biostatistics lecture. This wakes her right up, but Irene has already left, late for her history discussion section.  

Seulgi can’t concentrate at all during her statistics lecture, her fingers nervously tapping on her open notebook page. She manages to get through the period with only one power mishap; her elbows start to harden before she clenches her hoodie in her fists and tries to remember what techniques she’s learned from the other heroes that patrol the streets. Lumos used to have a similar problem, she remembers, and he always used to tap the rhythm of an old Rain song to get his eyes to stop glowing. She decides to tap her fingers to the rhythm of an old H.O.T song, and is pleased to find that her elbows turn back to their normal peachish color. She sighs in relief as no one seems to have noticed, their eyes glued to the front of the classroom. She makes a mental note to also thank Lumos the next time she sees him. 

As the lecture ends, Seulgi grabs the straps of her plain grey backpack and swings it over her shoulders, rushing out the doors to the cafe where she and Wendy have agreed to meet at. The cafe is a small one, not popular with most students, but it’s small, close-knit, and has an amazing whiteboard on the wall that can be used to write up chemical formulas or practice problems. As she pushes the door of the cafe open, the worker at the counter waves at her, and she waves back, craning her neck to look for Wendy. She spots her near the corner of the cafe--she’s claimed a little booth for them both, busy making a checklist of things they have to study for their next history exam. Seulgi makes her way over, slinging her backpack onto the floor and getting her bullet journal and laptop out. Wendy smiles at her, and Seulgi feels a little pang in her heart. 

“Okay,” Wendy declares--she has a habit of taking charge of situations, a skill that will definitely help her when she finally takes on her ambition of joining the department of management of heroics--“our test seems to be a combination of knowing when certain dates are, and being able to analyze the causes and effects of various situations. So!”--her voice pipes up a little, and Seulgi can’t help but smile--“I think we should make a timeline! We can place events in red, and--” 

“Causes in blue and effects in purple,” Seulgi completes, grinning widely at Wendy’s affronted expression, “Hey! it’s not hard to figure out your pattern, you use it for every single exam we have,”. 

Wendy shrugs, tossing her hair over her shoulder and scrunching her eyebrows. “Yeah, but you could’ve refrained from ruining my vibe…” 

Seulgi snorts, but Wendy is adorable, so she apologizes right after. This brings back Wendy’s blinding smile, and she hands Seulgi the red marker, instructing her to start from the present day and work backwards. 

They work for a while, until one of them--Seulgi’s not quite sure who--suggests a break. Seulgi goes to get a cup of water and a cookie, and on her return, she finds that Wendy has opened her laptop to a fresh window, watching a clip of some superhero. Seulgi slides into the booth next to Wendy and plops her head next to her’s, glancing at the computer screen. She’s mildly pleased to find that it’s not just any superhero - it’s her. 

“She’s such a good superhero, but I wonder why she doesn’t have a name,” Wendy whispers. “I mean, she has cool moves, amazing technique, and yet no name? No one’s bothered to name her? I’d feel pretty awkward giving myself a superhero name”--at this Seulgi grins--“but still!! I mean, it must be hard for her to not have a name to work with.” 

“Well, why don’t you try giving her a name?” 

At this, Wendy runs her fingers through her hair, and her brow crinkles in thought. She purses her lips in concentration for a moment, then snaps her finger in an  _ ah-ha!  _ moment. “Steel!” she exclaims, her eyes shining. 

Seulgi mulls it over, trying it on her tongue.  _ The name’s Steel.  _ It’s nice, the words rolling off her tongue in absolute precision, giving her a feeling of confidence that she’d like to enjoy for once. 

“I like it…” she whispers, grinning at Wendy, who beams at her in response. 

      *** 

Seulgi’s given the rest of the month off for muscle exhaustion, so it’s quite a while before she goes back to receive her monthly assignments. She walks through the door with a spring in her step, and is confused to find a new person at the waiting desk. It’s a young man, with dark hair, puppy eyes, and a smirking face. His eyes look kind though, and she has the vague feeling that she’s had long conversations with this person before. 

“Hello!” His voice is kind and excitable, and it brings a smile to her voice. 

“Hey!” she responds, and decides to ignore the value of suspense. “I’ve decided on my hero name!” 

His eyes brighten, and he leans forward, excited at this development. He puts his hands forward as a gesture for her to continue. 

“Steel!” Seulgi can’t stop bouncing, but she’s honestly so excited at the prospect of finally having a name to work towards. “Isn’t it good? My friend came up with it--of course she doesn’t really know who I am, but she was watching clips of me, and she came up with a name and I love it!” 

He turns to the computer on the desk without a word and pulls up her file. He simply enters her new name into the register, and with a smile on his face, says, “Welcome to the crew, Steel.” 

Seulgi smiles back, then also asks for her schedule for the month. After printing that out, he hands it to her. Something’s still bothering her though--she’s certain she knows this person. So she turns and asks, “You seem awfully familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?” 

He turns to face her, still smiling. His eyes brighten for a moment, and then start glowing. 

_ Lumos.  _

With a little chuckle, he asks her, “I don’t know, Steel, do you know me?” 

          ***

Seulgi’s paired up with Soleil on her first mission back, but she doesn’t mind it too much. They finish the mission without much of hitch, only the occasional “Stop hitting me with your solar beams! That hurts!” from Seulgi, followed by the profuse apologies that always follow from Soleil. They return to headquarters, ready to go home and take a long bath. Lumos isn’t at the front desk anymore, instead replaced by the old grumpy woman. Seulgi’s displeased at this development, but she remembers that Lumos was sent on a top class mission with his usual buddy, Ignis. She can let that go--Lumos is way too talented to be stuck behind some front desk. 

“Hello Steel, Soleil, you’re wanted in conference room numbers 4 and 5 respectively,” the lady greets them. 

Both of them let out a huge groan, but quickly stop when she glares at them from over her stupid glasses. They quickly head towards the elevator, but as the door is closing, both of them stick their tongues--Seulgi’s a sharp silver and Soleil’s a burning yellow--out in an effort to be valiantly defiant,. Still somewhat disgruntled at the fact they just can’t go home, their parting handshake is somewhat somber, only consisting of a fist bump instead of the usual repertoire of crossing hands, splits, and whatever other weird acrobatics they’ve infused into it. Whenever I.M is paired with the both of them, he stares off into space as if he’s looking at some camera. and looks like he wants to die. 

Seulgi pushes open the door to the conference room, and is surprised to find a familiar face there. It’s her homeroom teacher, Ms.Kim, but she’s a bit different--for one thing, she seems to be floating five feet off the ground. 

“Ms.Kim!!” Seulgi is affronted. All this time, Ms.Kim had been encouraging her to do more with her life, to help people, and all this time, she had been pointing for Seulgi to do the same as her? Be a hero?  

Unbelievable. 

“Hello, Ms.Kang.” Ms.Kim is smiling, and she settles down into the chair at the head of the table. “Have a seat!”

Seulgi’s mind is buzzing with questions, but she pushes them down in favor of plopping down in the seat in front of her homeroom teacher and leaning forward on the table. 

“How have you progressed with the question I’ve asked you?” 

Seulgi’s not quite sure how to answer this, but she starts with the basics. 

“Well, I thought I should have a name to work towards. You know, a name to make for myself?” Seulgi glances at her teacher, hoping to see if her response is on the track. Ms. Kim simply gestures for her to continue. 

“I found a name! Steel! But I’m not quite sure what my purpose as a hero is? What I want to work towards--I mean, Lumos is so kind and good and can fight and empathize with others, but whenever I try and sympathize with others, it feels like I can’t really? I don’t know…” Seulgi focuses her eyes on the ground, and she can’t seem to bring up the confidence that fuels through her when she’s fighting. 

Ms.Kim only smiles kindly at her, and taps the back of Seulgi’s chair. 

“Sometimes, I’ve found, people find their purpose when they collaborate with others.”

Seulgi’s eyes furrow at this statement, and she turns to face her teacher.“Like another hero?” Ms.Kim shakes her head. “Then who?” 

Ms.Kim turns towards one of the security guards in the room, and whispers something to him. He leaves, and Ms.Kim raises a single finger in a gesture to wait. 

Out of nowhere, someone begins speaking. “Hello, my name is Son Seungwan, and I-- ” the voice abruptly stops, and Seulgi turns to face its source. 

It’s Wendy. 

“Seulgi, what are you doing here?” Wendy asks, confused, and turns to face Ms.Kim. “I thought I was meeting Steel?” 

Seulgi smirks. “Wendy.” 

She taps her wrist, and her whole body glazes over with the familiar metal that she knows and is confident in. She hears Wendy shriek, but when Wendy turns to face her, she’s back to being calm and collected. 

“Hello, Steel.” She pauses for a moment, then shakes her head. “No, hello, Seulgi. I look forward to working with you.”

Seulgi grins and grasps Wendy’s outstretched hand. 

“It’s a pleasure to be working with you too, Wendy.” 


End file.
